


You Are My Sunshine

by bellutrixlestrange



Series: Sunshine [1]
Category: Free!
Genre: Death, M/M, OCs - Freeform, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-18
Updated: 2015-11-18
Packaged: 2018-05-02 07:48:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5240378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellutrixlestrange/pseuds/bellutrixlestrange
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nagisa never thought such a happy song could make him cry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Are My Sunshine

You Are My Sunshine. Nagisa never thought that such a happy song could make him cry, but this song did. He remembered hearing his mother singing the song to him and his sisters when he was little. Anytime one of them had a nightmare, their mom would sing them the song and it would make them happy. In time he began to think the song was magic.

Nagisa remembered singing the song to Rei that night on the beach when the Iwatobi Swim Club almost drowned. He remembered they were both terrified out of their minds, not knowing if Makoto and Haru were okay, or even if they were alive. He thought that maybe if he sang the song, it would help, and it did. Just a few minutes after he finished the verse, both of their friends showed up. That just furthered his belief that the song was magic.

When Nagisa and Rei got married, You Are My Sunshine was the song they chose for their first dance. Nobody else understood why they chose that song in particular, but that was okay, because it was their wedding, not everybody else’s. It was their song, the song that Nagisa shared with Rei, the song that made everything feel better, so they danced to it, hoping that in doing so, the rest of their lives would be happy.

The magic worked. Three years into their marriage, they had their first child. Gou was kind enough to be a surrogate for them, and using Rei’s sperm, she became pregnant with a boy. As soon as Nagisa held little Kohaku, he began singing the magical song. Kohaku’s cries stopped before he had finished the first line, and the baby went right to sleep.

A year later when they adopted Sayuri, a beautiful three year old girl, they couldn’t have been happier. Of course, having two young children, Nagisa found himself singing the song quite often. He wanted to make sure his children had good lives, that they were always happy, and so the magic of the song spread to his two little ones.

Four years after they adopted Sayuri, the magic began to break. It started when Nagisa and Rei found out that their daughter was being bullied at school. She came home one day crying, and when Rei asked what was wrong, she told him. The other kids were picking on her for having two dads. Rei immediately went up to the school to speak to her teachers, while Nagisa stayed home make sure Sayuri was okay. He sang the song to her, dried her tears, and then took his two children for ice cream.

Little by little, the magic faded, so slowly Nagisa didn’t even realize it was happening. He should have realized it when his daughter got bullied. He should have realized it when his sister nearly died of pneumonia. He should have realized it when his mother and father got a divorce. He should have realized it when Kohaku was eight and lost the use of his legs in a bad car accident.

He finally realized the magic had broken when Sayuri was thirteen. Rei was at work and Kohaku was at tutoring, so it was just Nagisa and his daughter at home. They were making dinner together like they had every night for the past three years. Nagisa knew that Sayuri hadn’t been feeling well for the past couple of days, but he didn’t know how bad it was until she collapsed.

When the ambulance got there, she was barely breathing. The EMT’s had to resuscitate her twice on the way to the hospital. The doctors in the emergency room did their best, but in the end were forced to put her on a ventilator. They told Nagisa and the newly arrived Rei that they didn’t know what was wrong with her. For some reason, her lungs had just given out. They had done all that they could, but Sayuri Ryuugazaki was brain dead. Her parents would have to make a choice on whether to prolong her life through the use of machines or to end her suffering. They chose to pull the plug, though it was the hardest thing the two men had ever done.

The funeral was three days later. It was a private affair, just close friends and family. Words of condolence were spoken to the young girl’s family, but Nagisa was too numb to hear them. For the next several months, he just went through the motions. He got up, made breakfast for his family, went to work at the little supermarket in town, came home, had dinner with Rei and Kohaku, and went to bed. It was the same routine every day for months.

Finally, Rei decided it was time to pack up Sayuri’s things and put them in storage. Nagisa refused to help. He hadn’t even been into her room since that horrible night. He just couldn’t bear to see it empty. So, while Rei boxed up all of their daughter’s belongings, Nagisa decided to visit her grave. It was the first time he had been there since the funeral.

As he gazed at the small stone that marked where his daughter’s body lay, the dam that had been holding back his emotions broke, and for the first time in months, he felt. He felt pain and anger and sadness like he had never felt before in his life. He screamed until his throat felt raw, and he sobbed after that. Through his tears he began the first broken lines of a song.

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.  
You make me happy when skies are gray.  
You’ll never know dear, how much I love you.  
Please don’t take my sunshine away.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you have a prompt you would like me to write, send me an ask on Tumblr at bellutrixlestrange


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